1. Field of the Invention
Applicant's invention relates to the design of a golf course, including apparatus usable thereon, to permit a normal game of golf to be played on a course requiring substantially reduced total area and providing illumination for night playing without incurring substantial energy expense.
2. Background Information
There are serious problems in the golf industry at the present time and in order to understand how these problems developed, we must start at the origin of the game. When the game of golf was invented in Scotland centuries ago, it was played along the seashore on land sites that were unsuitable for just about anything except golf. The basic rules of golf have not changed substantially, with the exception of clarifying amendments. The only major modernization of the game has been in the equipment used to play the game. Ironically this has, in a sense, been a setback, because the new clubs and balls were designed to make the ball go further, thus emphasizing the need of new courses to be longer, not shorter, and hence, for the average golfer, take more time to play.
The time element is the crux of the problem, because people do not like waiting around to hit their next shot and, in most cases, simply cannot spare the time required for a full round of eighteen holes of golf. Thus, the golf courses must charge more because of the low number of rounds played and constantly increasing maintenance costs. As a result, further expansion of the golfing industry is unlikely because of the time constraints and the very high price now required to build courses and to water and maintain them.
This problem has been recognized in the past. A few years ago Jack Nicklaus introduced the CAYMAN ball. This ball, due to its lightness, would only travel about one half the distance of the normal ball and hence permitted a short course to be built on the Cayman Island which is completely lacking in top soil. The result of this experiment was apparently unsuccessful, because the concept now appears to be dormant. An attempt was made to franchise a new golf game featuring a six inch cup and a special set of rules geared to speed play. This also proved to be unsuccessful.
A few golf courses have experimented with additional tees, suggesting that the less skilled players use the most forward tees. This probably would be a good idea if it were not for the "macho" image held by golfers who would refuse to go to a tee in front of the skilled ladies tee box and, of course, there are also unsolved handicap problems involved with this approach.
The problem of minimizing the required land area for a present day championship course totaling approximately 6500-7000 yards for eighteen holes played from the professional tees has not escaped the attention of inventors. U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,708 discloses a golf course wherein all drives are hit on a driving range which is provided with yardage distance markers. The player registers his estimated distance on a display board and, depending on the length of the alleged hole, the display board tells the driver to either "hit again", "register yardage" or "pitch to pitching green". The player then proceeds to hit the second shot for the theoretical hole, which can be either a par 4 or a par 5, and continues hitting from the driving tee until he receives the designation "hit to designated mechanized range green".
The mechanized range green is divided into segments or areas, each representative of a given distance from a flag stick. The areas are defined by a wire mesh material which is supported above the ground surface and intercepts the ball. The ball proceeds over a sloped portion of the mesh to a ball return conduit wherein it actuates a contact switch which indicates to the player which segment the ball is hit onto. The player then goes to an actual putting green and places his ball at the distance indicated by the approach shot which was caught by a segment of the mesh. A minimum of walking is involved, hence expediting the play, The problem with this arrangement is the monotony involved in hitting one, two or three balls from the same driving tee before hitting the ball to land on the mechanized putting green. The entire game of hitting fairway woods or long approach shots from a varying slope terrain is eliminated, and the only true golf shots are the initial drive and the putting on the actual putting green.
A number of patents relating to golf practice areas have been developed which provide the practicing golfer with an indication of the length of his drive by trapping the ball by a net, or a transversely inclined, hard landing area which directs it into a return trough or gutter for actuation of a distance indicator and redelivery to the practice tee. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,869,642.
In this patent, all drives, regardless of direction, end up in a gutter at the side of the fairway. Hence a ball hit to the right or left of center can register the same yardage as a ball hit down the middle. Only one playable fairway and green are provided, creating monotony rather than the challenge of eighteen different holes.
There is also a large number of patent disclosures wherein the entire golf game is played from a single location. This includes the so-called computerized golf wherein a picture of a famous golf hole appears in front of the player and he hits the drive which is captured by a net or similar target and the distance and direction of the drive is indicated by a computer. The picture then changes to the remainder of the hole so that the player may hit a second shot (or a third shot on a par 5 hole) toward the pictured green. This apparatus is most commonly utilized indoors and provides very little exercise other than the swinging of the club. The patents directed to this concept are too numerous to mention.
Driving ranges with a plurality of greens located at differing distances and directions have also been proposed. See U.S. Pat. 3,599,980.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,173 discloses a plurality of driving ranges with each green having 18 flags located thereon. Thus, an entire game of par 3 golf may be played from a single tee by directing the shots at the flag bearing the number of the hole being played. Actual putting of the ball, which constitutes about one third of the normal golf game, is not involved.
Lastly, the concept of combining a single target green with a plurality of driving tees located at varying distances and varying angles with respect to the target tee is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,738. In this arrangement, the second shot is not played from its normal location but from an arbitrary fairway hitting position which represents the remaining yardage for the hole. Thus, deviations in the line of flight of the originally hit ball are not taken into account. The position of the balls on the target green are indicated by three concentric circles surrounding the pin on the target green. All putting strokes are performed at a putting green which is located behind the driving tees and has a separate pin for each hole. The game is played in sequence of first hitting all drives, then hitting all fairway shots, and the approach shots from the tee area, and then moving to the actual putting greens to complete the putting for each hole. Obviously, this procedure bears little resemblance to the normal game of golf, and has not been successful in attracting more players.
Through all of these approaches, it is readily apparent that the problems of reducing the area required for a normal golf course and concurrently speeding up play on the golf course are well recognized in the art, but no desirable solution to the problem has heretofore been provided.
Night playing of the restricted area golf courses is mentioned in a number of the foregoing patents, but none of such patents provide an illumination system which will adequately illuminate the ball in the fairway or rough and the target green, but which will not consume an inordinate amount of energy comparable to that required for the largest stadium bowl. Proper, yet economical lighting of a golf course for night playing has yet to be provided.